If Rock/Taker/SCSA/HBK or any of those guys were champ the ratings would go up big time. The reason for that is because those guys are popular. People want to watch them. They are draws. Fuck even Rock just singing had a 3.8 rating. Now imagine the rating when/if he is champ?

rock singing did a 3.5 rating and that was a two hour show with no competition 2 weeks away from mania, rock or anybody else is not moving the rating much in november/december in 2012 up against big football games with no important ppv till the final days of january

look at the numbers raw was doing in june and july...look at the over-run numbers back then, the july 2nd/9th/16th raws all had over-runs which beat out every rock over-run during mania season

january is always a time when ratings should rebound anyway, after the bcs championship game, the raw after the rumble is always one of the most watched of the year

january is always a time when ratings should rebound anyway, after the bcs championship game, the raw after the rumble is always one of the most watched of the year

Sorry but this isn't correct. Or it depends on your definition of rebound.

Last January did a 3.1/ 2.8/ 3.0 and 3.1.
In the December just gone it did a 2.9/ 2.8/ 2.9 and 2.9.

So while ratings increased in January it was not by much at all.

The ratings do increase as we get towards Mania but in recent years it has not been by much at all. For example the last RAw before Mania this year did a 3.05 rating. Where as the one the year before did a 3.8. That in itself shows this year something is seriously wrong for numbers to fall so low.

As I said before the problem is the lack of stars on the roster. To prove my point you only need to go back to Raw 1000 to see a 3.8 rating for a 3 hour show. This show had a lot of the older guys involved so it is no surprise to see the numbers that high. You take away those guys and you have what we have now. And naturally the ratings reflect that.

Having The Rock as champion or even just being involved will increase the overall rating due to the amount of people who will watch his segments.

My opinion is WWE needs to start getting the older guys involved more. Even if in a non wrestling capacity. On August the 6th when HBK was on in the 2nd hour his segment did a 3.5 rating. Compare that to the highest segment rating this week and your see it is a big difference. Vince needs to get those guys involved even if it is acting as a manager/referee. As I mentioned before the newer guys are just not interesting on their own. Punk is a good example of that. He was struggling and Heyman came along to help him be more interesting. They need to do that with others. The Shield on their own will bomb. They have already lost viewers. If they had a known guy be their leader it would be different. Punk is not a strong enough name to be their leader.

My opinion is WWE needs to start getting the older guys involved more. Even if in a non wrestling capacity. On August the 6th when HBK was on in the 2nd hour his segment did a 3.5 rating. Compare that to the highest segment rating this week and your see it is a big difference. Vince needs to get those guys involved even if it is acting as a manager/referee. As I mentioned before the newer guys are just not interesting on their own. Punk is a good example of that. He was struggling and Heyman came along to help him be more interesting. They need to do that with others. The Shield on their own will bomb. They have already lost viewers. If they had a known guy be their leader it would be different. Punk is not a strong enough name to be their leader.

So how would you make the current guys interesting? We all know the older guys like Rock won't be around forever and are only temporary solutions to aspects like viewership numbers. They are only there by name, so what's going to sustain interest around guys like The Shield once they aren't there? Keep in mind that they'll be the ones inside the ring and continuing future feuds and programs as well.

Also, Heyman's involvement with Punk has not noticeably boosted his appeal if we were to go by numerical indicators. You say he's more interesting, but people aren't paying much attention by the looks of things.

Who knows what the ratings will look like... terrible terrible show, but it's not like a lot more was on that was worth watching. The MNF game was a blowout, unlike last weeks, and there just wasn't much happening. I could see a slight bump this week.

Thanks for the wonderful memories Ultimate Warrior... happy you got to be recognised as the legend you are before you went. Rest in peace

Raw is like watching Dexter's finale every week... why did I do that to myself for so long?

The Pats played Monday. they are easily the biggest draws in the NFL. Expect raw to not do well. Hoping ppl see the difference of a Raw without alot of Punk. He is easily the best part of Raw and hopefully he is still around even though he cant wrestle.

"It's the end of the Green Beast of the Leaf, the time has come for me to become the Red Beast"